16. Czech Republic
This country profile benchmarks recent trends in self-employment and entrepreneurship for women, youth, seniors, immigrants and people with disabilities in the Czech Republic relative to the European Union average. It also describes recent policy actions and current issues related to inclusive entrepreneurship.
Overall, the conditions for entrepreneurship are similar to the European Union (EU) average. About 15% of workers were self-employed in 2022, which was slightly above the EU average (13%). The self-employment rate varies across the population, ranging from 11% for youth in 2002 and women to more than 20% of immigrants. The self-employment rate declined by nearly 9% over the past decade, which was slightly below the decline at the EU-level (more than 10%). The decline was strongest among immigrants and seniors (50-64 years old). About 17% of the self-employed employed others in 2022, which was well-below the EU average (32%). Few self-employed youth (20-29 years old) and self-employed women employed others (8% and 13% in 2021), but more than one-in-five self-employed immigrants and self-employed seniors had employees.
Several national strategies that support inclusive entrepreneurship have been updated in recent years, including the Gender Equality Strategy 2021-30. Several initiatives are being launched to implement the Strategy, including some that focus on supporting women entrepreneurs. One example is “Strengthening the competences of women disadvantaged on the labour market and in business”, which is part of the Operational Programme Employment Plus. One aspect of this project is to support the development of entrepreneurship activities of women over 50 years old to reduce the risk of poverty in retirement age. Targeted entrepreneurs are those who established a business before 2021, has fewer than 10 employees and turnover less than EUR 2 million. The new initiative will offer training, coaching and mentoring, roundtables, workshops and more. These activities will cover financial literacy, adopting IT tools in business, marketing, identifying opportunities to access financial resources (e.g. bank loans, equity investment), balancing work and family life, and managing human resources.
The number of Ukrainians starting a business with a trade certificate nearly tripled between 2021 and 2022. The government is using a range of national and local initiatives to help support Ukrainian refugees to integrate, including through entrepreneurship. One example is the mentoring programme DoToho! (“Go For It!”). This initiative offers Ukrainian refugee entrepreneurs the opportunity to be “buddied” with a business leader in their community and a customised training programme. Support is provided in both Czech and Ukrainian, and there is no charge for participating.
Note: In Panel a, the data for the EU median for SME lending excludes the following countries: Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Luxembourg, Malta and Romania. The EU median for the entrepreneurship skills indicator excludes: Belgium, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia and Malta. Please see Chapter 10 for detailed notes on the figures.
Source: (Eurostat, 2023; OECD, 2023). Please see Chapter 10 for full citations.